The music industry. Once a bastion of creativity and expression, it has slowly been suffocated in recent years, overwhelmed by soulless corporatism, with free thought gradually eroding away. Control of the industry is now in the hands of a select clique of power brokers, with the power to make or break any artist, no matter what their talent level. In short, the music industry as we know it is under threat.
The symbols
of this oppression and the public faces of the homogenisation of music are
Simon Cowell and the monstrosities he has spawned. Of these one looms largest
in the public eye- the X-Factor. For 5 years it has continued its unchecked
reign, dominating the airwaves and musical discourse in the eyes of the masses
to the detriment of other artists. Every year, another manufactured “star” or
band would come out of the program, carefully selected to appeal to the widest
range of tastes with every ounce of creativity stifled. Riding on the crest of
the X-Factor wave, they would be the Christmas number 1, and continue in most
cases to a career of determined mediocrity. This was how it was, and no-one
could do anything about it.
Until 2009.
In 2009, the
husband and wife team of Jon and Tracy Morter had finally had enough. They
decided that, instead of merely complaining about the situation, they would act. They decided to show the X-Factor,
and the public at large, that a grass-roots movement of music-lovers was still a
powerful force. They decided to strike a blow at the most gratuitous example of
X-Factor hegemony- their stranglehold on the Christmas number 1.
We all know the rest of that story. The Killing in the Name campaign was an unadulterated
success, with over 500,000 downloads. But it also provided a blueprint of how
the X-Factor could be defeated, and it is this blueprint that truly caught the
attention of and inspired Panacea Enterprises.
Our Aim
At Panacea, we considered whether we could have a similar impact, but at a local level- whether we could promote creativity and expression, by giving local musicians and bands an opportunity to showcase their talent. Our vision is to create an opportunity for young musicians to do this, by bringing together a variety of styles and sounds onto one compilation CD. This CD will contain music from different genres, but all will share the connecting thread that they are all local unsigned artists. We aim to market this CD widely to local retailers, and to obtain greater publicity for the bands through media channels such as Look East, and the Colchester Gazette. We hope that by bringing these songs together, we will be able to get more recognition for them, and perhaps even allow the musicians to fulfil their ultimate dreams. While this may be a lofty goal, the example of the Killing in the Name campaign showed that it was not impossible.
We also take
social responsibility very seriously, appointing a highly qualified member of
our team to be Director of Corporate and Social Responsibility to that end. We
have put the bands themselves, and the community at large, at the heart of our
business model, and will be attempting to participate in outreach projects so
that more people are able to benefit from our efforts. This emphasis on
responsibility also extends to the environment where we are trying to minimise
our impact as much as possible.
To complement these lofty goals, we have also unveiled our “Beats and Sweets” range of products, starting with our novelty vinyl bowls, which aim to tie in with our wider emphasis on music as a means of expression, while still providing a fun and exciting product for the customer. We have plans to expand to a greater range of products in the future.
In classical
mythology, Panacea was the goddess of healing, able to cure the most harmful of
ailments. While at Panacea Enterprises we cannot claim such mystical powers,
nor the ability to solve all problems, we hope that we will be able to do our
bit to give raw talent a voice and restore the music industry to its former
glory.
The Team
We are a team of 25 Year 12 students from Colchester Royal Grammar School. Since being formed in September of 2011 as a Young Enterprise company, we've been working hard to fulfil our initial ideas. The team members are:
Management
Corporate and Social Responsibility
Events
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